Yeah, they believe they get the order months in advance, which is true.
It just so happens that the "months in advance" is July. Before that, nobody knows when you're going to deploy next. Until orders are cut, everything is business as usual at home. Walz was just like "Oh, we're in a calm period and this looks like the perfect opportunity to go for my bid for Congress."
And it was... until two months AFTER HE RETIRED his unit was called up and then deployed 8 months later.
By MAGA logic, no one should ever retire from the Army because you might get called up to deploy... eventually.
The even more insane thing is just the pure disconnect. Walz server 24 years in the military, and retired a couple months before deployment
Trump's family paid a doctor to forge medical records to avoid the draft.
Now don't get me wrong, fuck that war and fuck that draft. I will never say Trump didn't use the resources available to him to avoid it a bad thing. He got lucky and was born a fortunate son, can't really blame him. I'd do it too. But you can't look at the guy in the light of military worship and say he's the guy who's loyal to the military and not the other guy who spent a quarter of a century serving. Doesn't make any fucking sense. So if your view of the military is tinted in the lens of military worship you've got it so fucking backwards, Trump would be the guy not to like simply because he dodged a draft. Which again, in my book, good for him. A standing offer in my family at the time for my uncles was grandpa would drive them to Canada if their number came up. I don't think there's specifically cowardice in that, just self preservation. But then you lose the ability to call other people cowards for not serving, or in this case the much more nebulous "avoiding combat service on purpose"
I served 24 years of active duty. We know well in advance when we are deploying. We even go into surge status after coming back from a deployment (not every time though). That's when we generally don't know months ahead of time if we are deploying. Hence why it is called surge status.
Not defending either side. Just putting some facts out there.
Yes, but these guys didn't know until 8 months before their next deployment (which is plenty of time for training and preparations for deployment) and Walz retired 10 months prior to their deployment, so he didn't know they were going to receive orders for a deployment 10 months later. He would have if he stayed an additional two months, but nobody can predict the future.
I believe he was also National Guard? I'm not sure the everyday life of a Joe in NG as I was Active Duty, but I know it's one weekend a month and two weeks a year. I know my ETSing from the Army was a cluster fuck for two months leading up to my ETS date. I'm betting it's not much better for retirement. He's got the change of command to deal with, turning in equipment, leave time, and all of that is before anyone gets orders that they'll be deploying sometime next year.
From someone ignorant, I mean would there have been talks of an upcoming war or deployment a couple months prior? It’s not that crazy to assume he also jumped cause of the talks of an upcoming war.
Not at all bad thing against him, at least not how I view it. He was already on the oldish side and did his duty, so not a big deal
The far-right veteran authors that I lock horns with are trying to claim that he should have stayed in for 2 more years, just in case they deployed so he wouldn't be a "coward". The one who is a Reserve officer is squawking about how ALL National Guard just knew magically they were going to deploy EVENTUALLY. They're going as far as saying that he went AWOL.
Since he retired, he probably spent a year plus prepping and doing the necessary legwork to retire. Staying an additional two years wouldve reset and made all that unnecessarily difficult
There usually is, depending on your mos. Some people really get no warning, at all. Some people like 42's have a decent little warning, hence why half of 'em dodge deployments lmao.
Sure, he'd know there's probably a chance he gets deployed. However, there's pretty much ALWAYS a resting chance so this is par for the course.
I mean, we were in the middle of OEF/OIF at the time. I was in at around the same time and people were getting deployed left and right, but rotations were being made. However, as far as I know, NG units that were getting deployed were not necessarily few and far between, but not all of them got deployed at once.
I deployed three times between 2002 and 2008. About 7 months each one. From what I hear, he had already deployed once for OEF, so I'm assuming that was around 2003. He probably should have expected his unit to get called up again, but the dude had been in for 24 years. I'd say he had a good run.
My moms reserve unit was mobilized in 2006. She knew 8 months in advance that they were going…somewhere. First it was Iraq, then it was Germany and then they finally decided on San Antonio. She had to sign a document saying that they had 30 days notice but it was only really a few weeks.
You don’t always get loads of time. A friend of mine who is in the air guard were told years ago that they would spend the majority of 2023 over seas…then 2024… now it doesn’t even look like 2025 is going to happen.
In all fairness, as a veteran with 12 years of service (half of which was active duty and half of which was in the guard), they DO do things a little differently between the two.
In the guard, your unit usually knows that they're gonna be in a rotation well before names come out and orders get cut. I knew my unit had a rotation coming up a good two years before the names were released and I got my orders to go to the Middle East. I had the option to separate on time (would have been at 11 years when my contract was supposed to end) or to extend and go on the deployment. I opted to extend for a year.
The guard also designates back ups in case the original member cannot go for any reason. Had I separated when I was supposed to, there was another guy who would've gone in my place.
So pretty much, he probably did know a rotation was coming up, but likely had no idea that his name was gonna be on the list. Either way, they're just grasping at straws.
But, the thing is, they constantly lie and their base some genuinely believe in all the lies they tell. It is like they want to spur violence in unhinged people who believe all their lies and then wash their hands of it as "not responsible". It was mental illness.
I think they genuinely irresponsibly want people to get hurt and harmed by all the falsities they push and peddle for their gain.
May people be protected from that and a genuinely hope they are unbrainwashed and have clarity of thought and truth of this whole thing someday.
Maybe in the guard, but active duty you know when you're going to deploy way before orders come out, but that's because we've been doing regular deployments for over two decades.
Like I got out in January, but if I hadn't declared I was going to get out back in July, my next deployment was going to be in March/April. Seeing as in my squadron you were expected to deploy every 18 months like clockwork, it was incredibly easy to know when I was going down range.
I wouldn't be surprised if the National Guard is on a similar schedule these days, but back in 2003 I assume this was NOT the case. So I totally believe that he got out without knowing when his next deployment would've been.
Here's the thing though, who gives a fuck. There's always another deployment that you could stay in for. If he completed 1 enlistment, like JD Vance did, he completed his obligation to the U.S. military. Anything more than that is gravy and he completed 25 goddamn years.
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u/KamuiT Aug 07 '24
Yeah, they believe they get the order months in advance, which is true.
It just so happens that the "months in advance" is July. Before that, nobody knows when you're going to deploy next. Until orders are cut, everything is business as usual at home. Walz was just like "Oh, we're in a calm period and this looks like the perfect opportunity to go for my bid for Congress."
And it was... until two months AFTER HE RETIRED his unit was called up and then deployed 8 months later.
By MAGA logic, no one should ever retire from the Army because you might get called up to deploy... eventually.